O*NET® Products at Work

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration introduced the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to the public in 1998. Since that time, its impact on workforce development, career counseling, educational programming and human resource activities has quickly expanded, both in the U.S. and around the world. O*NET Products at Work provides examples of the widespread use of O*NET OnLine, the O*NET database, the Toolkit for Business, and the O*NET Career Exploration Tools.

O*NET Users! Tell us how you're using O*NET products in your own projects. We'll consider your story for inclusion in the O*NET Products at Work directory. It's a great way to share your products or research with the millions of other O*NET users.

Stories tagged:

The AARP Public Policy Institute and the Urban Institute examined how job demands have changed over time and what they might look like in the future. In the paper, Employment at Older Ages and the Changing Nature of Work(Johnson, Mermin,
& Resseger, 2007), the authors link detailed information on occupational characteristics
from the O*NET database to the March 1971 and March 2006 Current Population Surveys. They found a sharp decline in the physical demands of jobs and the prevalence of difficult working conditions over the past 35 years. They also found that jobs have become more stressful and cognitively challenging. The implications of the study suggest that the decline in physical job demands increases the opportunities for older people to remain at work. However, more stressful, cognitively demanding jobs complicate the picture. The study proposes that the changing nature of work will likely promote old-age
employment for most people, or at least not interfere with longer work lives.

The National Center on Education and the Economy
prepared a background paper for the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. The paper, America in the Global Economy(Uhalde & Strohl, 2006), merges O*NET occupational data with earnings and education data provided by the Current Population Survey (CPS) to identify competencies and skills which are highly valued by employers. The paper goes on to describe a model for determining the probability of off-shoring jobs based on similar
merging of O*NET occupational attributes and CPS data.

The Research and Analysis arm of Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development completed a study (Leeuw, 2008) designed to guide individuals, educators, and workforce professionals in identifying occupations that share similar skills. The study used O*NET skills data to create a new career cluster model that emphasizes relationships between seemingly unrelated industries and occupations. These clusters are being used to prioritize and focus resources on programs and curricula that support pathways to emerging high wage and high demand occupations.

A researcher in the Department of Management and Organizations at the Tippie College of Business
in Iowa headed a team doing research to validate the WorkKeys Fit Assessment, a tool which uses occupational interests and work values to measure person-occupation congruence. The team used the O*NET database to develop and validate the
assessment. Results of their work suggest that the
fit between person and occupation predicts positive work attitudes and outcomes. This
relationship is a useful concept that can be applied to personnel staffing. Organizations
which include an interest-values assessment of person-occupation congruence may increase job satisfaction, job match, and job commitment among their employees.

Projecting the Impact of Computers on Work in 2030 from The National Research Council Center for Education

At the Workshop on Research Evidence Related to Future Skill Demands, the National Research Council Center for Education presented a paper, Projecting the Impact of Computers on Work in 2030 (Elliott, 2007). This paper describes an approach to projecting new workplace skill demands based on increased use of computers in the
decades to come. An analysis of the impact of comp
uter technology on future skills used the O*NET database to provide definitions, anchoring tasks for ability levels, and occupational ratings for the set of human abilities that are broadly relevant to work. The 21 results of the analysis suggested that a serious and sustained effort is needed to project and prepare the American workforce for the extensive changes that are likely to occur as computers continue to displace human activity in the workplace.

The Center for Hospitality Research of Cornell University conducted a study titled, Ability versus Personality: Factors that Predict Employee Job Performance (Tracey, Sturman & Tews, 2007). The researchers used O*NET definitions, education and training requirements, tasks, and required knowledges, skills, and abilities as part of their research to test the hypothesis that cognitive ability is more important for predicting performance among inexperienced employees than among experienced employees in frontline restaurant jobs. In addition, they hypothesized that conscientiousness was more valid for predicting performance among experienced employees than inexperienced employees. These hypotheses were supported in their research.

AARP Public Policy Institute and the Urban Institute

The AARP Public Policy Institute and the Urban Institute examined how job demands have changed over time and what they might look like in the future. In the paper, Employment at Older Ages and the Changing Nature of Work (Johnson, Mermin, & Resseger, 2007), the authors link detailed information on occupational characteristics from the O*NET database to the March 1971 and March 2006 Current Population Surveys. They found a sharp decline in the physical demands of jobs and the prevalence of difficult working conditions over the past 35 years. They also found that jobs have become more stressful and cognitively challenging. The implications of the study suggest that the decline in physical job demands increases the opportunities for older people to remain at work. However, more stressful, cognitively demanding jobs complicate the picture. The study proposes that the changing nature of work will likely promote old-age employment for most people, or at least not interfere with longer work lives.